These Moving Time Lapses are Made with Just a Single Still Photograph

Though it may seem like you’re watching a time lapse that uses hundreds of photos of a scene to track the passing of time, you’re actually just looking at a single picture “moving” with the magic of software called Platograph Pro. It’s one still photograph that’s been moved digitally. How?

PetaPixel says that Platograph Pro works by letting you add vector lines to any picture, which then animates that section of the photo and make it appear as if it were moving, like in a GIF or a cinemagraph. It mimics the movement of real life time lapses quite well.

The footage below was created from a dozen photos taken by Ron Risman. Risman writes:

This timelapse film was created using only 12 individual JPEG photographs. Each photograph was processed into a pseudo timelapse using a beta version of Plotagraph Pro. The idea behind Plotagraph Pro is to create cinemagraphs out of a static photograph, however after seeing what this software was capable of I wanted to see if I would be able to create a timelapse film using a single still-frame to create each landscape sequence. This film is the result.

The post processing for this film took 12 hours, which included designing the movement for each of the twelve photographs using Plotagraph Pro, rendering each out as a sequence, then creating the film using Adobe Premiere Pro. Music was licensed through Art-list.io.